Gardening blog

Week forty seven November 18th - November 25th

2006



I am amazed by how much this apple tree has produced this year. I seem to have been picking apples from it for weeks now and yet there are still apples on the tree.


2005

Sunday 20th November 2005. I spent some considerable time today clearing the grass from under my small cooking apple tree. This involved digging up the Star of Bethlehem bulbs and re-planting them. As they have started into growth they are easy to see at this time of the year. I've moved these bulbs around like this this several times before and it seems to do them no harm at all. Indeed I think splitting them up a re-planting actually does them good and I'm sure that getting all of the various kinds of grass out of there must be good for them. Behind this tree I'm planting out my small tulip bulbs again as I did last year.

Saturday 19th November 2005 It's been sunny every day this week and today was no exception. In contrast to the sunny days the nights have been cold and frosty. I am still digging up potatoes, earthing up leeks and planting garlic.

2004

I finished planting out the tulips bulbs in the allotment. These are all the bulbs not dug up last year when in flower. Some are still too small to flower next year - but those that do I will dig up and move to other parts of the allotment depending on their colour and variety. After digging up the tulip bulbs this year I dug in plenty of muck and planted courgettes in the space left by the tulips. That seemed to work well as the courgettes enjoyed the summer, cropped well but were dead and gone by the time the tulip bulbs needed to be planted out again. I think I will do the same again next year as it's an advantage to keep the tulips in the same spot because there is always the odd one two that escape being dug up. At least they are already in the right place and not popping up amongst the onions or cabbages.

2002

Today was a mild, sunny, autumn day - a great day to be in the allotment. I finished planting the garlic and started planting the tulips. The bamboo canes that have done the job of giving the runner beans their support in the summer should now be safely stored in the shed keeping dry and sound ready to be used again next years. Some of mine are inside and the remainder will go in tomorrow.

I topped up all the bee feeders but I don't think the bees are taking much feed now. I'm also restricting access to the hives to keep the mice out.